From Ribeirao Preto in Sao Paulo to the south west of London, Joao Pedro’s journey has been full of a wide array of unique experiences. But now he has been handed the keys to the kingdom at Stamford Bridge, he is leaving no stone unturned.
The 23-year-old cut short his summer holidays to join Chelsea in the middle of the FIFA Club World Cup campaign. He would end up becoming a vital piece of the jigsaw as the Blues went all the way to win the competition.
Since then he has started the Premier League campaign in fine fettle. Two goals and three assists in four starts makes him the club’s top contributor. And while some may have thought having less recovery time in the off-season would have hampered him, the Brazilian has done everything to ensure that would not be the case.
“I try to work with the guys in the physio [department] here a lot to be able to give 100 per cent to every game,” he tells Sky Sports, before revealing he has also been doing extra work away from the training ground with a private physio to try and stay sharp.
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“In the days when we train in the morning, always in the afternoon I try to do something to recover faster. Or, if I feel a little bit of pain in one area, in order to be fit as soon as possible to be ready for the next game.”
The pressure on the forward to maintain his fitness has only grown in recent weeks with the departure of Nicolas Jackson to Bayern Munich and Liam Delap’s hamstring injury that is set to keep the Englishman out until December. Something the former Brighton man is all too aware of.
“I need to try to be fit because now I think I’m going to play more and more games, get more minutes, but the club helped me a lot to be able to be on the pitch for every match,” he says.
Part of what makes Pedro so valuable to Blues boss Enzo Maresca is his versatility. Chelsea fans have already seen him take up positions all across the front four, evidenced by his heat map for the Premier League season thus far.
Incredibly, he started off as a defensive midfielder at Fluminense, but after his goalscoring touch was discovered he was moved further up the pitch. He does, though, credit this as to why he has been able to be so efficient in different areas.
“I played as a midfielder when I was in the academy but I was number 10, so one day the coach asked me if I could do this position [defensive midfield] and I started to train there sometimes,” he explains.
There was mention of how Wolves midfielder Andre was forced to change position in the Fluminense youth set-up because of how prolific Pedro was becoming and, ultimately, there could be no denying that the budding attacker had a future further up the pitch.
The 23-year-old’s journey in English football started more than five years ago when he left his homeland to join Watford in 2020. Two-and-a-half years later he was snapped up by Brighton and enjoyed a fruitful debut season under then-manager Roberto De Zerbi.
Prior to the Italian’s shock departure at the end of the 2023/2024 campaign, Pedro had made 40 appearances in all competitions under him, scoring 20 goals and adding another nine assists. It was by far his most productive term, and so far that remains the case, as his numbers dropped off slightly following the arrival of Fabian Hurzeler.
Now under the tutelage of another Italian tactician, there are already some notable differences that have become apparent to the forward, and not just in terms of their styles of play.
“I think both have a passion, they love football, they are very smart, but De Zerbi is more aggressive. Not in a bad way.
“The way both think, it is very easy to understand what they want, but I think Enzo knows how to manage sometimes between the players.
“The way he talks is more understandable. Enzo is more composed but both managers are really offensive. They like to play with the ball and want to have the ball in the whole game so it’s very good for me. I think they are similar but also they are different.”
Credit was also given to De Zerbi for changing the player’s mentality, with the Brazilian admitting he was once too comfortable with where he was at.
“When I was at Watford I was a little bit comfortable with my position. When I moved to Brighton he pushed me every day,” he says.
“He said things like I could be a top striker in the world. From that I started to believe in that. I started to believe if I work every day hard I could be a top striker.”
While he is still nowhere near his prime, it is safe to say that the hard work is paying off. It is early days of course, but heading into Saturday’s clash with Manchester United, live on Sky Sports, the Brazilian sits top of the pile when it comes to Premier League goal involvements this season.
While recent years have been spent questioning why Chelsea never found the answer to their No 9 conundrum, they may have now not only found that, but also stumbled upon a solution to numerous potential problems Maresca’s attack could encounter.
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